Tri­umph Day­tona 675

It ruled the su­pers­port class, but can it still cut it?

“The new Day­tona has more power and torque than be­fore, and the ABS brakes are a huge im­prove­ment. The sharper chas­sis means that the new bike turns quicker and with less ef­fort than be­fore, while tweaks to the rid­ing po­si­tion en­sure that the rider is less cramped, de­spite the more fo­cused chas­sis – an im­pres­sive trick.” Adam Child, MCN Jan­uary 20, 2013

What’s it like now?

At a time where su­pers­port 600s don’t seem to make sense any­more, the Day­tona 675 is a white and blue wave of pure clar­ity. Since its cre­ation in 2006, that three-cylin­der 675cc en­gine has pro­vided road rid­ers with a stun­ning mix of drive and revs, and this 2013 in­car­na­tion gives yet more still. The shorter stroke de­sign fea­tur­ing a sep­a­rate cylin­der block with new Nikasil-coated bores de­liv­ers more top-end rpm and im­proved mid-range, while one-tooth-shorter gear­ing adds to the su­pers­port ex­cite­ment.

Sure, the ma­jor­ity of the 675’s power is still at the top end but get­ting to it isn’t a chore. Spurred on by that plump torque and gid­dy­ing in­duc­tion howl, you hang on to the throt­tle un­til all six po­lice-siren-blue shift lights are il­lu­mi­nated on the dash. Yet you don’t need to ride the Day­tona es­pe­cially fast to en­joy your­self, just dart­ing through traf­fic is a joy thanks to the mass-cen­tralised pack­ag­ing.

As some­one who spent 9000 bliss­ful miles with a Day­tona 675 in 2013, this feels like com­ing home. The chas­sis, although incredibly slim, is ex­tremely roomy, and there’s some­thing un­canny about the feel feed­ing back through bum and hands via the fully ad­justable KYB sus­pen­sion, which on this bike has been per­fectly set-up to strike the ideal bal­ance be­tween com­fort and com­po­sure. The new-wave Race ABS that was ush­ered in for this model up­date (although not fit­ted to this ma­chine) is ex­cel­lent too, es­pe­cially re­as­sur­ing when the weather turns foul, and it’s bril­liant in per­fect con­di­tions on track too, al­low­ing just a small amount of rear wheel lift under hard brak­ing.

Has it worn well?

There was a time when ac­cu­sa­tions of poor build qual­ity were lev­elled at Tri­umph, with some of the fas­ten­ings of orig­i­nal model Day­tona 675s fur­ring and cor­rod­ing with the slight­est ex­po­sure to mois­ture, but that time has long since passed. De­spite show­ing 10,948 miles on its dig­i­tal dis­play, this Day­tona is de­void of any stand-out blem­ishes, and the en­gine still pulls with as much pep as it did the day it rolled out of the fac­tory. Judg­ing by this ex­am­ple’s sports-tour­ing-spec Miche­lin Pi­lot Road 3 tyres and very neatly plumbed-in af­ter­mar­ket heated grips, this is a bike that’s been used year­round and in all weath­ers – which makes its near-pris­tine con­di­tion all the more im­pres­sive.

Those Miche­lin Pi­lot Road tyres ham­per the 675’s su­per­nat­u­ral steer­ing slightly, their flat­ter front pro­file cer­tainly takes the edge off the Day­tona’s agility, but on damp and cold Novem­ber roads they’re work­ing bril­liantly. For a 675 that’s con­fined to sunny Sun­days only you can’t go too far wrong by fit­ting a pair of Pirelli’s Su­per­corsa SP, or full-fat Su­per­cor­sas for those with track­day am­bi­tions – and, when you own a bike as sweet­handling as the Day­tona, you owe it to your­self to take it on a cir­cuit at least once. Met­zeler Racetec are another pop­u­lar tyre choice.

A per­fect part­ner

The Day­tona 675 is still the undis­puted king of the 600 sports bikes, and as this 2013 up­date is still the cur­rent model, it’s a bril­liant used buy. This one’s cur­rently up for sale at Wheels Mo­tor­cy­cles in Peter­bor­ough for £6495. www.wheelsmo­tor­cy­cles.co.uk